Biographies

"Did they tell you stories about the saints of old,
stories about their faith?
Stories like that make a boy grow bold,
stories like that make a man walk straight..."

Rich Mullins, Boy Like Me, Man Like You

Stories about people have a way of affecting us in ways other stories can't. The Bible is primarily stories about people, and it is through these multiple biographies that we understand human nature, the history of redemption, and even to a great extent God Himself. The purpose behind any other biography is largely the same—to help us understand what it means to be human from the examples (sometimes even the bad examples) of those who have preceded us.

The biographies we have chosen for this section represent those of great leaders in history, social and military heroes, and Christian saints past and present who struggled to conform their lives to Christ's perfect example. We have avoided for the most part biographies of history's villains and chronic immoralists, not because they aren't interesting but because they don't represent lives worthy of imitation. We've also decided not to focus on athletes, actors, and celebrities, unless they've made important contributions outside their fields. That's not to say everyone found here was above reproach or even a Christian, but they all demonstrated real human virtues for which they are remembered.

Biographies are also useful for better understanding of a given historical period. While history books can provide good overviews of a period or events, the intimate detail of a good biography can better illustrate a time period and what it was like to be alive then. This also serves to demonstrate the universality of human nature, that people will behave basically the same during any given period and in any given place. Sometimes we get the impression that people of the past, especially people like missionaries and ministers, were somehow more pious than we are—the personal view offered by a good biography dispels this myth and offers encouragement that not even the best men and women are any closer to perfection than we are.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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52 Items found Print
Active Filters: Explorers, 9th grade (Ages 14-15)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
by Samuel E. Morison
from Atlantic Monthly Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Admiral Richard Byrd
Sterling Point Books
by Paul Rink
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Historical non-fiction for 5th-9th grade
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
Adventures and Discoveries of Marco Polo
World Landmark #3
by Richard Walsh
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
All That Glitters
Perspectives on History Series
by Phyllis Raybin Emert
from History Compass
Historical Non-fiction for 6th-9th grade
in California State (Location: HISA-19CGR)
Amelia Earhart
Sterling Point Books
by John Burke
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-9th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador
World Landmark #25
by Felix Riesenberg, Jr.
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Book of Discovery
by M. B. Synge
from Yesterday's Classics
for 7th-12th grade
in History Spines & Surveys (Location: HISRF-SPINE)
$20.95
Book of Famous Explorers
Young Folks Library
by Edwin Erle Sparks, editor
from Auxiliary Educational League
for 3rd-9th grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
Captain Cook
by Alistair MacLean
from Doubleday & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Captain Edward L. Beach: Around the World Under Water
by Beril Becker
from Kingston House
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus
by John Abbott
from A Beka Books
for 7th-10th grade
in A Beka Book Report books (Location: REA-ABK)
Christopher Columbus
by Samuel Eliot Morison
from Dorset Press
for 8th-11th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Cortes and the Aztec Conquest
by Irwin R. Blacker
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
Danger in the Desert
by Roger Cohen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-9th grade
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
Landmark #21
by John Mason Brown
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Davy Crockett
Landmark #57
by Stewart H. Holbrook
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Discoverers of the New World
by Joseph Berger
from Troll Associates
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Endurance
by Alfred Lansing
from Tyndale House
for 9th-Adult
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
$16.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Endurance
by Caroline Alexander
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 8th-Adult
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
by Kieran Doherty
from Oliver-Nelson Books
for 7th-9th grade
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ferdinand Magellan
World Landmark #31
by Seymour Gates Pond
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Four Voyages
by Christopher Columbus
from Penguin Classics
Historical Primary Sources for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$17.00
Great Adventurers of the Twentieth Century
by Ron Tagliapietra
from Bob Jones University Press
Biography Anthologies for 8th-Adult
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
$12.95
Henry M. Stanley
Lives to Remember
by Robert Edmond Alter
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Jim Bridger, Mountain Man
by Stanley Vestal
from Bison Books
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Journey and Ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca
Dover editions
by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
from Dover Publications
for 5th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$10.95
Life of Christopher Columbus
by Edward Everett Hale
from Living Book Press
for 8th-12th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.49
Log of Christopher Columbus
by Christopher Columbus, translated by Robert Fuson
1992 Printing from International Marine / McGraw-Hill
for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
Luck of the La Verendryes
by Lyn Harrington
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 7th-12th grade
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
Magellan
by Michael Burgan
from Compass Point Books
for 5th-12th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Mission Control, This Is Apollo
by Andrew Chaikin, Victoria Kohl
from Viking Press
for 4th-9th grade
in Space Race & Exploration (Location: HISA-20SPR)
Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$21.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition
by Caroline Alexander
from Harper Perennial
for 8th-Adult
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
Nansen
by Anna Gertrude Hall, illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff
from Viking Press
for 6th-10th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Path to the Pacific
Sterling Point Books
by Neta Lohnes Frazier
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-9th grade
in Lewis & Clark (Location: HISA-19L&C)
Samuel De Champlain
by Samuel E. Morison
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado
by Marc Aronson
from Clarion Books
for 7th-9th grade
2001 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$21.99 $12.00 (2 in stock)
South Sea Shilling
by Eric Swenson
First Edition from Viking Press
for 7th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Christopher Columbus
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #2
by Nina Brown Baker, illustrated by David Hendrickson
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Leif Ericson
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #30
by William O. Steele, illustrated by Pranas Lapé
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Marco Polo
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #22
by Olive Price, illustrated by Frederico Castellon
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Polar Conquest
by Logan Marshall, ed.
from Vision Forum
for 7th-Adult
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Stout-Hearted Seven
Sterling Point
by Neta Lohnes Frazier
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Non-fiction/Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Oregon Trail (Location: HISA-19OR)
They Saw America First
by John Bakeless, Katherine Bakeless
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 4th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Travels of Marco Polo
by Marco Polo
from Orion Press
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Travels of Marco Polo
by Marion Koenig, illustrated by Mario Logli & Gabriele Santini
from Golden Press
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Truth About Sacajawea
by Kenneth Thomasma
from Grandview Publishing Company
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Voyages of Henry Hudson
World Landmark #54
by Eugene Rachlis
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
We Claimed This Land
by Eugene E. Snyder
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
William Penn
by Catherine Owens Peare
from University of Michigan Press
for 9th-Adult
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
World of Columbus and Sons
by Genevieve Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
History Reference for 7th-10th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
World of Columbus and Sons
by Genevieve Foster, edited by Rea Berg
Edited from Beautiful Feet Books
History Reference for 7th-10th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$21.95